“What are you arguing about?” I asked this question of our children many times when they were growing up….and got no response. Sometimes I knew what they were arguing about and wanted a chance to interject. Sometimes I didn’t know…but wanted to know. As the kids got older, and I asked that question, it was usually met with “silence”. Yep, they didn’t want to tell me for many reasons. Often they wanted to handle it themselves. At other times, especially when I knew what they were arguing about (but they didn’t know I knew), they were ashamed and didn’t want me to know!
Sometimes they would get in the car ahead of me and, as I got in the driver’s seat, I could feel an “air of tension” in the car. There had been an argument. They didn’t know at the time, but I knew what had happened. Can you guess? They had been arguing over who was going to sit in the front seat, riding “shot gun!” Because it was a continuing argument and they knew how I would handle it, they didn’t want me involved.
Much later…a lot later…I learned how defeated the youngest, our daughter Collins, was in this ongoing battle and others! She often got double teamed by her brothers and, out of fear, she said nothing. 🙂 Eventually, she got older, wiser….and some of her mother…manifested in her….a.k.a….she learned to stand up for herself. 🙂
Human behavior is so predictable. Our sin nature–we desire to be head, number one and want to think God doesn’t know us and see our sin. Look at the disciples in the book of Mark chapter 9, verses 33-35. “They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he [Jesus] asked them [the disciples], ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ But they kept QUIET because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest. Sitting down, Jesus called the twelve and said, ‘Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.'” [emphasis mine]. HE KNEW!
Why did the disciples KEEP QUIET? Because they knew they shouldn’t have been arguing about who was best or first or most loved! I think it is comical. They had to know Jesus knew the answer before He even asked the question. The disciples had been traveling with Jesus, witnessing countless miracles and realized His supernatural power to KNOW.
WE do the same thing, don’t we? So many times we walk around and try to be “quiet” or “hide” when we forget or somehow deceive ourselves into thinking….God doesn’t see or know! HE does. I often think back to my kids and think about how they thought I didn’t know what was going on and all the time I did!
Point of post: God knows.
You can kid yourself or deceive yourself into thinking…God doesn’t see. He doesn’t know. But HE DOES.
He knows our thoughts and motives. HE is a mind reader! If we could just continually have in the forefront of our thoughts…God sees…God knows… and that is Who…matters!!! Thankfully, it is God who judges and the only One who has the authority to condemn. BUT, an even greater praise…. He is the first to extend grace and forgiveness when we ask. He is the one who possesses the POWER to redeem, redirect and help us to recover from WHATEVER…….!
Psalm 44:20-21, “If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, would not God have discovered it, since he knows the secrets of the heart?”
Don’t be deceived. Run to the Source. The ONE WHO KNOWS….TURN to HIM…Allow HIM to BE the audience of ONE whose approval you seek.